Sure, several generations know him best for his work on TV, whether they were children of the 60s laughing along with his sitcom McHale’s Navy, 80s fans of his helicopter heroics in Airwolfor 21st century kids who only knew him as the voice of “Mermaid Man” on Spongebob Squarepants.

But his more than 60-year-long filmography includes such movies as Johnny Guitar, Vera Cruz, The Catered Affair, The Vikings, Barabbas, The Flight of the Phoenix, The Dirty Dozen, Ice Station Zebra, The Wild Bunch, Willard, Emperor of the North, Convoy, Escape from New York, Spike of Bensonhurst, Gattaca and BASEketball, as well as plenty others of dubious qualities.

And then there are three others that are my favorite Ernest Borgnine roles, two of which have coincidental connections to his rivals for the 1956 Best Actor Oscar. His bully Sgt. “Fatso” Judson in 1953’s From Here to Eternity is a good portion of the reason that Frank Sinatra won his supporting Oscar in the same film. Man, he’s a nasty piece of work. And it was only fair that Borgnine beat Spencer Tracy to the Oscar, because in Bad Day at Black Rock a one-armed Tracy beats him to a pulp.

Finally, one of my favorite guilty pleasure movies – which I don’t really feel guilty about – is The Poseidon Adventure, the original 1972 version, of course. Borgnine’s Detective Lieutenant Mike Rogo experiences the greatest character development of anyone in the underwater disaster epic. Plus, he’s married to former prostitute Stella Stevens.

Borgnine was married five times, including a one-month union to Ethel Merman in 1964. His wife since 1973, Tova, and his children were with him when he died of kidney failure at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.

THIS JUST IN:Turner Classic Movies has announced a 24-hour Ernest Borgnine marathon starting at 6 a.m. Thursday, July 26. Set your DVRs.

CJ Lais

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